Wednesday, May 27, 1998 Last modified at 2:01 a.m. on Wednesday, May 27, 1998

Students back at school after shooting

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. (AP) - Hundreds of students returned to school Tuesday for the first time since last week's shooting rampage, gathering outside to sing "Amazing Grace" and read the names of the two students killed and 22 injured.

The desks of the dead and critically wounded were left empty and counselors were available in every class. Some counselors brought dogs for students to pet as a way to break the tension.

Thurston High School cut the day short so students could attend the funeral of 17-year-old Mikael Nickolauson, who was buried with military honors because he had signed up for the National Guard three days before he was slain. The other student killed, 16-year-old Ben Walker, was buried Monday.

Inside the cafeteria where 15-yearold Kip Kinkel allegedly opened fire, many students went back to where they were sitting when the shooting started for a free breakfast. of muffins and juice. Several who couldn't bear to go back were allowed to eat in an adjacent courtyard outside.

"These are young adults, but they are still kids, they are still tender," said school Supt. Jamon Kent.

Walking past walls where bullet holes had been patched and painted over, about 100 students went straight to special "safe rooms" where they could be alone or talk to counselors.

"I'm kind of scared in a way," said 16-year-old Jessica King. "It's going to be a tear-jerker for a lot of people. Everyone is going to come together today."

Said 17-year-old Zack Coats: "I want to get it out of my mind."

Some students left flowers and messages on a fence that has become a memorial.

"Besides the nightmares and the daymares, I know people here care for me," 17-year-old Kira Haley said as she placed a bouquet of daisies at the fence.

Principal Larry Bentz said nearly all the 1,400 students, including many of the injured, showed up.

Teachers were instructed to let the students dictate how the day would proceed. In a typing class, for example, those in the class simply tapped out their feelings.

The school - featured on TV newscasts around the world since the May 21 shooting - put on a closed-circuit newscast of its own Tuesday, featuring some words from the principal.

"I assured them that Thurston was a good school and that they were good students, and that this was a one-time act of a tortured soul," Bentz said.

Students were later taken by the busload to Nickolauson's funeral, where more than 900 people packed the Eugene Christian Fellowship to remember him as a quiet boy who loved computers and board games, and dreamed of a job as a systems analyst in the military.

"It hurts so deep it stabs at the very heart of our being," said the Rev. Otis Harden. "Yesterday is terrible. Today is terrible. Tomorrow is another day."

Several in a long line of speakers stood before a coffin draped in the American flag and expressed bitterness that someone so young was taken so soon.

Applause rose from the crowd only once, when a mother who did not give her name said: "Hug your child tonight. He is the most valuable asset you have."

Meanwhile, at a juvenile detention center across town, Kinkel remained under a suicide watch, wearing paper clothing in an isolation cell with 24-hour surveillance cameras.

He is charged as an adult with four counts of aggravated murder alleging he fatally shot his parents at home before driving the family car to school and firing 51 rounds from a rifle.

The day before, Kinkel had been arrested and suspended for allegedly buying a gun from another boy and putting it in his locker. He was booked and sent home with his parents, who friends say were becoming increasingly frustrated with their son's growing obsession with bombs and guns.

That afternoon, National Guard officials say, they got a call from a person believed to be Kinkel's father anxiously seeking to enroll his son in a Guard program for troubled youngsters. The man didn't identify himself but said his son was 15 and had just been suspended from Thurston High. The minimum age for the program is 16 and those currently facing charges are not eligible.

National Guard program director Keith Bonner quoted the man as saying: "I have a son who is probably going to be in serious trouble and I'm looking for help."

There were no immediate details about the funeral for William Kinkel, 59, and his wife, Faith, 57, both popular foreign-language teachers. A public memorial was set for Friday at Springfield High School, where Mrs. Kinkel taught.

Their 21-year-old daughter, Kristin, a student at Hawaii Pacific University, released a statement from her attorney relaying her "deep, deep sorrow to the victims. ... She feels and shares your loss."

"Kristin is, as her parents were, supportive of her family," the statement said. "Her brother is a part of that family and she remains supportive of him. She has had an opportunity to speak with Kip and they shared their grief."